Researchers of the Faculty of Chemistry have developed the fundamentals of producing nanocrystal and glassy materials for catalysis and biomedicine with soft chemistry methods, a task assigned by the government. These methods include hydrothermal synthesis and a sol-gel method that allow creating new products with lower temperature and pressure in the installation. At the same time, the soft chemistry methods substantially reduce the time required to synthesize of a substance.

- We developed the foundations of producing new materials with the desired properties using these methods, - said Anton Brichkov, an employee of the department New Materials for the Chemical and Electrical Industries of the Faculty of Chemistry. - The carrier for the catalyst, in this case, is the fiberglass cloth that is applied to the active substance. The efficiency of such a material is much higher than the classical catalyst because the classical one doesn’t interact with the entire volume, but only its surface.

Along with the technology, chemists have developed two new products. One of them is a catalyst for deep oxidation of hydrocarbons. This material consists of a glass-fiber substrate to which titanium dioxide is applied as a thin coat, modified with d-metal and silicon. Silicon contributes to a better retention of the substance on the carrier and d-metal increases its activity. The new catalyst can be used in different areas, for example, for the oxidation of noxious exhaust gases that will decompose into carbon dioxide and water under the influence of the material.

The second product developed within the state task is a catalyst with a wide application in industrial chemistry. The material is intended for the partial oxidation of paraffin, a reaction that results in useful products: ketones and alpha-olefins. The latter, for example, is used for producing synthetic lubricant oils, industrial detergents, synthetic fatty acids, surfactants, and other products.